UB

University of Barcelona

Information
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585

addictions, Alzheimer's, Antarctica / Arctic, astrobiology, astrophysics, big data, bioethics, climate change, cancer, behavioural sciences, natural sciences, climate, quantum computing, pollution, covid-19, embryonic development, diabetes, gene editing, education, energy, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, rare diseases, ageing, epidemiology, STDs, physics, immunology, language, mathematics, microbiology, nanoscience, neuroscience, new materials, oceanography, palaeontology, chemistry, robotics, mental health, AIDS / HIV, sociology, supercomputing, transgenics
Contact
Ester Colominas
Head of Institutional Communication Unit
premsa@ub.edu
934035544

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SMC participants

Doctor in Biology and research professor in the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Barcelona.

Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences at the University of Barcelona

PhD candidate in the Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona

ICREA Research Professor and Coordinator of the Regenerative Medicine Programme at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), member of CIBER-BBN, Director of the Clinical Translation Programme in Regenerative Medicine in Catalonia, and Professor of Physiology at the University of Barcelona.

Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Barcelona and member of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology

Associate professor at the University of Barcelona, ICREA Academia fellow, and member of the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty.

Senior Consultant at the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, Professor of Public Health and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Barcelona

Professor of Microbiology, University of Barcelona

Researcher at the Applied Research Group on Neuromuscular Diseases at the Sant Joan de Deu Research Institute in Barcelona; at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics at the University of Barcelona; and at the Biomedical Research Network Centre for Rare Diseases (CIBERER)

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

Brainlab, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona (UB).

UB Institute of Neuroscience

Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute

Lecturer of the Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology at the University of Barcelona, researcher at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and CIBERSAM

ICREA research professor and leader of the QSBio research group at the University of Barcelona

Head of Microbiology at Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, associate professor at the University of Barcelona, and researcher at ISGlobal Barcelona

Deputy Head of the Tobacco Control Unit at the Catalan Institute of Oncology and lecturer in the Department of Nursing, Public Health, Mental Health and Maternal and Child Health at the University of Barcelona

Lecturer  at the University of Barcelona (UB) and head of the Laboratory of Neural Stem Cells and Brain Damage at the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB

Director of the BCNatal maternal-fetal medicine center (Hospital Clínic-Sant Joan de Déu) and professor at the University of Barcelona.

Head of the Arrhythmias and Physical Activity research group at IDIBAPS, cardiac electrophysiologist at Hospital Clínic Barcelona, associate professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona and researcher at CIBERCV.

Director of the Institute of Neurosciences at Hospital Clínic, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Barcelona and researcher at IDIBAPS and CIBERSAM

Professor of Pedagogy at the University of Barcelona 

Lecturer in the Department of Fundamental and Clinical Nursing at the University of Barcelona and member of the research group ‘Bioethics, Law and Society: Interdisciplinary analysis of ethical, legal and social issues of biomedicine, biotechnology and emerging technologies’

Head of Section and Director of the Eating Disorders Unit within the Clinical Psychology Department at Bellvitge University Hospital, Professor at the University of Barcelona, Deputy Director of CIBERobn and ICREA Academia researcher

Professor at the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona. Principal Investigator IBUB and CIBEROBN.

Geologist and professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Barcelona

Gemma Marfany, Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona (UB) and a member of CIBERER, IBUB-IRSJD
 

Serra Húnter Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media of the University of Barcelona

Neuropathologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Barcelona

Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Barcelona, Director of the Fabra Observatory RACAB

Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Barcelona

Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona and coordinator of the Central Sensitisation Unit at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.

Associate Professor, Brainlab, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona (UB)

UB Institute of Neurosciences

Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute 

Clinical psychologist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology at Clínic Hospitaland researcher at IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona

Researcher in the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology

Scientific coordinator of the National Health System Cancer Strategy, director of the Catalan Oncology Plan and Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Barcelona

Professor of financial economics and accounting at the University of Barcelona

Researcher in the Human Anatomy and Embryology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Barcelona

Ramón y Cajal Research Professor, Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Head of the Research Department and the Technology Department at the Duchenne Parent Project, Spain, and holder of the Chair in Rare Diseases at the University of Barcelona

Physician at the Gynecological Oncology Unit at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, ​​scientific coordinator at the Clinical Institute of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Neonatology (ICGON) and associate professor at the University of Barcelona

Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona. Principal Investigator IBUB and CIBEROBN.

Associate professor al University of Barcelona and member of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Institut of Neuroscience

Professor of Ecology at the University of Barcelona

Serra Húnter Lecturer in the Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology at the University of Barcelona and co-director of Research at the Jane Goodall Institute Spain and Senegal

Head of Medical Oncology at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), head of the Colorectal Cancer Research Group, Oncobell programme (IDIBELL) and associate professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona

 

ICREA research professor of Cosmology and Theoretical Physics at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona, visiting professor in the Astrophysics group at Imperial College London (United Kingdom), and researcher at the Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology (ICIC)

Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Barcelona 

Theoretical physicist and ICREA professor at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona

Lecturer Serra Húnter, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona

Professor in the Department of Electronics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Barcelona and group leader at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

Contents related to this centre
Plásticos.

Ahead of the anticipated conclusion of a United Nations global treaty on plastics, a group of international experts calls for greater attention to health effects when addressing plastic pollution. The work, published in The Lancet, reviews current evidence on how plastics—including microplastics and plastic chemicals—affect health, and announces the launch of a new project to monitor these effects.

earthquakes

Between 2021 and 2024, the Android Earthquake Alerts system detected an average of 312 earthquakes per month and sent alerts in 98 countries associated with 60 events of magnitude greater than 4.5, according to a study published in the journal Science. The study also includes comments from users who received the alerts: 85% said they felt tremors, 36% received the alert before noticing them, 28% during the event and 23% after they occurred. In addition, 84% said they would trust the system more next time, according to the research team from Google and the universities of California - Berkeley and Harvard (USA).

seasonal worker

In Spain, immigrant employees earn 29% less than other workers, according to a study published in Nature. This gap is comparable to that observed in Canada, but greater than that of other European countries in the study, such as Germany, Norway and France (19-20%), and much higher than the gap observed in the United States (10%) and Sweden (7%). ‘The segregation of immigrant workers into lower-paid jobs accounts for approximately three-quarters of the overall wage differences between immigrants and natives,’ the study states.

mitocondrias

A team from the Netherlands has successfully edited pathogenic mutations in mitochondrial DNA in human cells, changes in DNA that cause disease, according to research published in PLoS Biology. The authors used a genetic tool known as a base editor. Until now, techniques derived from CRISPR have made it possible to correct mutations in nuclear DNA, and new techniques are being developed that allow mitochondrial DNA to be edited.

pills

An oral formulation of risperidone could be administered weekly instead of daily to treat patients with schizophrenia with the same efficacy, according to a phase III clinical trial published in The Lancet Psychiatry. The study included 83 patients in the United States.

 

faecal microbiome

An international study has warned of the potential risks of widespread use of faecal microbiota transplantation without taking into account the region of the intestine where the transferred microbes arrive. The experiment, conducted on mice and human tissue samples, showed that the microbes from the transplant—mostly anaerobic microbes from the colon—colonised the small intestine, persisted there for months and modified that new environment, causing changes in the host's metabolism. According to the authors, whose study is published in the journal Cell, this may have long-lasting and unforeseen consequences, as well as imbalances in the intestinal ecosystem of patients.

 

 stem cells

A technique developed under the coordination of researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB) in Barcelona has made it possible to track methylation patterns or “barcodes” in blood cells and construct their epigenetic family tree. This has enabled them to trace their evolution and changes with age, which could be useful for disease prevention and for the study or even development of specific therapies against ageing. The results are published in the journal Nature.

baby

A team from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine (United States) has successfully treated a baby diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder using personalised CRISPR gene editing therapy. The baby, known only by the initials KJ, was born with a rare metabolic disease known as severe carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) deficiency. After spending the first months of his life in hospital on a very restrictive diet, KJ received the first dose of his tailored therapy in February 2025, between six and seven months of age. The treatment, which is being used for the first time for this type of disorder, was administered safely, and the baby is now growing well and improving. The case is detailed in a study published by The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

stem cells

A research team has managed to ‘rejuvenate’ embryonic stem cells from mice to give them greater differentiation potential, according to an article published in the EMBO Journal. Changing the type of sugar these cells use to grow modifies their metabolism and, according to the researchers, could improve their therapeutic potential or their use in in vitro fertilisation treatments.  

  

neurons

A new study sheds light on how the brain adjusts its ‘wiring’ during learning, concluding that different dendritic segments of the same neuron follow different rules for communicating through their connections - synapses. The findings challenge the idea that neurons follow a single learning strategy and offer a new perspective on how the brain learns and adapts its behaviour. The work, carried out in mice, is published in the journal Science.